South Africa 19 Ireland 13
Regrets, they’ll have a few; maybe not of the overall performance so much as the chances Ireland left behind. Ireland’s ambition and bravery could only be applauded, but at the end of a testing three-match series at the end of a mammoth season, they will lament a series that got away not once, but twice.
Here, in particular, they will rue two hard-earned and gilt-edged try-scoring chances, less so one missed penalty by Paddy Jackson. They also pounded the Boks’ defence for two lengthy multi-phase attacks late on, the second coming within a pass of a try in overtime.
To take the series into the last throes of the third match would have been considered highly unlikely before the tour commenced and was a long shot when Jared Payne joined Robbie Henshaw on the sidelines.
Ireland had to dig deep into their reserves in every sense, but did so. This wasn’t just a courageous performance in terms of physically matching up to the Boks’ bruisers, but more pertinently in the way they took the game to the home side.
With only five lineouts last week, only two of which provided a platform for back moves, they had been forced to leave a lot of their spot plays on the training ground. Here, at the end of another lovely mid-winter’s day in Port Elizabeth, there were 15 lineouts, and they won all but one of them, to play a wider, more ball-in-hand game from first to last, as the 10-12-13 Ulster axis of Jackson, Stuart Olding and Luke Marshall went through their intricate repertoire.
It wasn’t always slick and it didn’t always click, but it should have yielded a bigger return. Tiernan O’Halloran also hit the line impressively before being forced off at half-time. Up front Iain Henderson had a monumental game, while Jack McGrath, Rory Best, Devin Toner and Jamie Heaslip went to the well yet again.
CJ Stander had some big plays, and Jordi Murphy had a fine athletic game. Their bench made a big impact too, and might even have been brought five or 10 minutes sooner. All told, Ireland had 68 per cent of the possession and 73 per cent of the territory.
In any event, it was just that having created so much, this truly was a once-in-a-lifetime shot at history. Had the tour been in reverse order, there would have been consolation in the historic first win on South African soil in Cape Town, but it seems less so now.
By contrast, the Boks brought little except for some straight running, mauling, lots and lots of high kicks and a big scrum, where they successfully stayed down in the pursuit of four direct penalties and two indirect penalties. They were also decidedly fortunate not to have been reduced to 14 men from 11th minute for the remainder of the game, rather than just 10 minutes, after Willie le Roux took out O’Halloran in the air.
The unfortunate Connacht player had claimed the opening kick-off, and withstood a stampede of Boks for his troubles. Not such a bad thing. It got him straight into the game. Francois Louw, a serial offender in the series to date, was pinged for playing the ball off his feet.
Ireland attacked wide on both sides off the ensuing lineout, Best brilliantly keeping a ball in play on the left touchline from Murphy’s pass, and O’Halloran stepping nicely past one would-be-tackler before the move floundered on a knock-on by Marshall.
Marshall was then penalised for offside after a good take by Keith Earls when in front of Conor Murray’s box kick and Elton Jantjies landed the touchline penalty to open the scoring.
The Irish scrum was then pinged for wheeling on the second Boks’ put-in as Tendai Mtawarira put the squeeze on Mike Ross, with Toner’s body positioning also demonstrating the pressure coming through. Jantjies was wide from almost 50 metres.
But then came South Africa’s luckiest break of all. From a Faf de Klerk box kick, O’Halloran jumped high for a clean catch, but was taken out in the air by Le Roux, who was nowhere near the ball. It should have been red. Unsurprisingly, Glen Jackson brandished a yellow, after the English TMO Rowan Kitt concluded that as O’Halloran, who was almost turned 360 degrees in the air, landed on his shoulder rather than his head or neck.
That still didn’t detract from Le Roux’s recklessness – he must have seen O’Halloran was in the air well before him, had no chance of winning the ball and turned his shoulder at the last second – nor did it alter the fact that O’Halloran still had to leave the field for seven minutes for an HIA, meaning a first Test cap for Matt Healy.
The outcome was again more important than the action, which of course will only encourage players to stay down and feign injury. Payne must have been looking on in astonishment again, given his red card for Ulster against Saracens in that European Cup quarter-final.
In any event, from another penalty up the lineout, Ireland went through multiple phases, Olding making the initial inroads, Marshall finding space in the outside centre channel, McGrath beating Damian de Allende, and Henderson, Heaslip and Stander all made carries before Marshall beat Jantjies’s tackle to reach out for the line.
Jackson converted, but just before Le Roux rejoined the fray, Jackson pushed his kickable three-pointer wide, which would have been a 10-point return from Le Roux’s yellow. Helpfully though Warren Whitely was soon offside and this time Jackson landed the penalty from 45 metres for a 10-3 lead.
It was a fair reward for Ireland’s ambitious start, as for the third Test in a row they kept the ball and quietened the crowd. By this point they had around 80 per cent possession and territory.
Olding re-gathered his own chip as Ireland attacked from deep, and went to a spot play off a lineout maul only for Marshall to throw a loose pass which luckily Lionel Mapoe fumbled. It still proved costly though, as McGrath was penalised at the ensuing scrum for going down and in, and Jantjies landed the 45 metre penalty.
Even then, Ireland should have scored a second try after Henderson ripped the ball from De Klerk after the scrumhalf tapped quickly and went. O’Halloran joined the line of the recycle as Ireland went wide from their own 22, finding Marshall outside. The centre cut back and straightened through brilliantly, accelerating away from the white shirts but faced by just Le Roux with Earls on his outside, delayed his pass a tad too long and then missed the winger for what would have been a run in.
That wouldn’t have been so bad had Louw poached for a penalty off Earls, although he didn’t appear to release after the tackle, and when Marshall passed short to Olding after a dummy wrap with Jackson, Siya Kolisi poached for a turnover.
Jantjies got his runners going and then, with an advantage, spotted space outside Trimble (stumbling slightly when forced to turn) to deliver an inch-perfect crosskick which Pietersen gathered on the run for a try. Jantjies tagged on the touchline conversion and so Ireland trailed at the break despite having had 67 per cent of the possession and 69 per cent of the territory.
Nor did O’Halloran, who seemed to be limping and was also out of position for the try, resume for the second half, meaning Healy again came on to the left wing and Earls, now effectively a fifth choice fullback, moved to ‘15’.
Nevertheless, Ireland continued to keep the ball in hand and explore any openings, and were put in a good attacking position when Stander poached for a penalty, but after Jackson knocked on Heaslip’s offload, Murray ended a Boks’ power play when also poaching for a penalty.
When Murray launched Stander on a thunderous charge off a lineout take by Murphy, who then trucked it up before Ireland set up a maul had numbers aplenty when Murray moved it to Jackson going left to right. Jackson could have gone himself, could certainly have put Olding through but his lofted skip pass for Trimble was stopped one-handed and caught by a leaping De Klerk.
The Boks took the air again, as Jackson made a great take and mark despite Earls colliding with him in the air, before Healy failed to gather another bomb.
On the hour, a fourth scrum penalty enabled Ruan Combrinck to make it 16-10, before Murray was penalised for not rolling away after tackling Jantjies, who extended the lead to 19-10. Joe Schmidt turned to his bench, and Rhys Ruddock made an immediate impact with the follow-up tackle from Jackson’s short restart which led to the penalty with which Jackson brought it back to 19-13.
All the replacements made an impact, particularly Eoin Reddan dummying and sniping and passing from the base on his farewell cameo, Ultan Dillane and Ruddock injecting ballast and then there was Seán Cronin. When Earls retrieved a grubber up the line by Pietersen and launched a counter from deep with a pass infield, Heaslip cleverly let it bounce past him for Cronin to make a stunning 50 metre break from deep.
On and on Ireland carried and recycled, through 20-plus phases before Ruddock was penalised for going off his feet. By comparison, South Africa players were going off their feet with impunity and without any censure from Jackson. Still, back Ireland came for another multi-phase drive on past the hooter, with Dillane and Olding each showing blinding footwork.
But De Klerk rushed up on Earls as the last defender out wide again, to make the ball-and-all tackle which prevented him moving the ball on to Healy on his outside for what would have been a finish in the corner. Best pulled the entire squad into a circle for a lengthy chat. So near so far. Such a pity. Another one that got away.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 6 mins Jantjies pen 3-0; 16 mins Marshall try, Jackson con 3-7; 23 mins Jackson pen 3-10; 32 mins Jantjies pen 6-10; 40 mins Pietersen try, Jantjies con 13-10; (half-time 13-10); 60 mins Combrinck pen 16-10; 69 mins Jantjies pen 19-10; 70 mins Jackson pen 19-13.
SOUTH AFRICA: Willie le Roux (Cell C Sharks); Ruan Combrinck (Emirates Lions), Lionel Mapoe (Emirates Lions), Damian de Allende (DHL Stormers), JP Pietersen (Cell C Sharks); Elton Jantjies (Emirates Lions), Faf de Klerk (Emirates Lions); Tendai Mtawarira (Cell C Sharks), Adriaan Strauss (Vodacom Bulls) (capt), Frans Malherbe (DHL Stormers); Eben Etzebeth (DHL Stormers), Pieter-Steph du Toit (DHL Stormers); Francois Louw (Bath), Siya Kolisi (DHL Stormers), Warren Whiteley (Emirates Lions).
Replacements: Steven Kitshoff (Bordeaux-Begles) for Mtawarira, Julian Redelinghuys (Emirates Lions) for Malherbe (both 57 mins), Jaco Kriel (Emirates Lions) for Kolisi (61 mins), Franco Mostert (Emirates Lions) for Etzebeth (74 mins), Bongi Mbonambi (DHL Stormers) for Strauss (78 mins). Not used: Rudy Paige (Vodacom Bulls), Morne Steyn (Stade Francais), Lwazi Mvovo (Cell C Sharks).
IRELAND: Tiernan O'Halloran (Connacht); Andrew Trimble (Ulster), Luke Marshall (Ulster), Stuart Olding (Ulster), Keith Earls (Munster); Paddy Jackson (Ulster), Conor Murray (Munster); Jack McGrath (Leinster), Rory Best (Ulster) (capt), Mike Ross (Leinster), Iain Henderson (Ulster), Devin Toner (Leinster), CJ Stander (Munster), Jordi Murphy (einster), Jamie Heaslip (Leinster).
Replacements: Matt Healy (Connacht) for O'Halloran (11-18 mins and half-time), Tadhg Furlong (Leinster) for Ross (51 mins), Ultan Dillane (Connacht) for Henderson, Rhys Ruddock (Leinster) for Stander, Eoin Reddan (Leinster) for Murray (all 69 mins), Seán Cronin (Leinster) for Best (73 mins), Ian Madigan (Leinster) for Earls (73-77 mins) and for Olding (77 mins). Not used: Finlay Bealham (Connacht),.
Referee: Glen Jackson (New Zealand).
